The Mediator II: New Beginnings
by genies9
Summary: Part 1 of 6. This is the story about another mediator in a different part of the country, who has to face a lot of the things that Suze does: school, a hot ghost in her bedroom, boys (preferably said hot ghost), and a slightly bizarre love triangle.R&R Pl
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Okay, I wrote some version of this a long time ago, and since that version is kind of on my dead laptop, I have to retype it from scratch and try to remember what I wrote. So, here it goes.  
  
Summary: Fifteen-year-old Anna Foster was a perfectly normal teenager until two years ago when she moved to Nebraska (totally random place, sorry) and met Alex—who just happened to be very hot, but very dead. He taught her about being a mediator and now she spends most of her time helping ghosts and has almost no time for anything else.  
  
Okay, that's kind of just the background information. For the moment, we have no plot. But never fear! I will find a plot! (Dang, that sounds dumb, doesn't it?)  
  
Disclaimer: Umm... Dude, what do I need a disclaimer for? I own everything. I don't own the basic idea for the Mediator, but really, who's going to sue me for a minute detail? So, HAH, I don't need a disclaimer, thank you.  
  
Chapter 1  
  
The key to dating, I think, is get as much information about the person you're going on a date with beforehand, especially if it's a blind date, in order to avoid a very, very dull time.  
  
That's exactly what I should have done before I let my brother talk me into going out with his new girlfriend's cousin. You know, when they say "I can only go if I find a date for my cousin/friend/brother/next door neighbor/total stranger," that generally means one of two things: Either the guy is ugly as a troll, or he's dull as dirt.  
  
Well, I have to give my brother this much: Steve Phillips was as far from looking like a troll as a person could get. And he wasn't dull as dirt either. Nope, he was much duller.  
  
We were sitting in what was probably the only decent hangout for teenagers in our town, waiting for a waitress to come by to take our order, and Steve was already droning on and on about what was apparently his favorite subject: sports. Is it possible for someone to be in every single sport that is offered at our school? Apparently so, since Steve was talking about every single one.  
  
I barely managed to escape to the bathroom during his long description of the nuances of golf before I fell asleep.  
  
I leaned my head against the wall outside the ladies room, groaning. "Note to self: Never, _ever_, go on another date with a jock."  
  
"Huh. Then I guess this would be a good moment to mention that I played baseball for a year in high school, wouldn't it?"  
  
I groaned again. "Alex."  
  
Alex Johnson was decidedly the last person I wanted to see at the moment. Alex's only goal in life—or rather, his afterlife, since he'd been dead for twenty years—was to turn me into the best damn mediator ever. That, and annoy the hell out of me. So, either way, no matter what he was here for, it couldn't be very good for me.  
  
That, and the fact that Alex was entirely too good looking for his—or my—own good.  
  
I'd met Alex two years ago when I'd moved into the house where he used to live. Back then he seemed big and dark and forbidding. I don't know why, I guess maybe it just took me a long time to get used to his moods. Alex was perfectly fine until he got very angry—furious—and then he was a very scary person. Not that he ever hurt anyone when he got that way. It just took me a very long time to realize that he wasn't going to haul off and hit me if I did something to tick him off. I never got why he was like that. It could be that he had a certain drug problem when he was alive, but I never thought that'd have an effect on how he acted now that he was dead.  
  
It was one of the many things I never understood about him.  
  
But at the moment, my mind wasn't on that particular subject. What I didn't understand about Alex, I mean.  
  
"What do you want, Alex?" I asked, rubbing my eyes. "I'm kind of busy."  
  
He grinned that stupid—okay, kind of sexy, not that I noticed—cocky grin of his. He always did that. "Yes, I can see that."  
  
I was about to say something, but a woman appeared in the hallway to the bathrooms, and I had to wait until she'd passed before I could do anything. When she was gone, I hissed, "Alex."  
  
"Right. You had a visitor earlier."  
  
I groaned. Great. Whenever Alex said that, it always meant a ghost had shown up in my bedroom. God, I can't even go on a stupid date—okay, a really boring date, but still a date—without something happening. "What'd they want?"  
  
"I didn't ask."  
  
I glared at him. "That's not very helpful, you know."  
  
"No, but I never ask. That's your job." He just stood there and kept on grinning. I never got what Alex found so amusing about my annoyance. Well, actually, he only found it amusing when I was annoyed at him. The rest of the time, apparently, it wasn't as amusing.  
  
"But she did say she'd be back to talk to you later," he finished.  
  
"Oh. Fine." I pushed off the wall where I was leaning and started back down the hallway out of the bathrooms area. "I'll see you later, Alex," I called over my shoulder.  
  
"Oh, and Foster." When I turned around, he was still grinning. Damn, I hated what that smile did to me sometimes. "Enjoy the rest of your date."  
  
Yeah, right.  
  
!!  
  
A/N: Eh, not sure if I like the chapter, but it's a start. Didn't deviate too much from the original one I wrote, I think. So, yeah. Review and please don't tell me it's awful. :-) 


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Okay, we have a plot! Yeeey! It ties in with later stories in this series, but for now, I'm going to leave you scratching your heads and wondering how that is. :-) Hehe, you also get to meet the other third of the bizarre love triangle I mentioned in the summary... lol.  
  
Chapter 2  
  
The pool at my school was mostly off-limits to anyone except for the swim team and when the gym classes had their swimming unit. But on most weekends during the school year, the pool was open to anyone who could pay the fifteen-dollar entry fee—students got in free, of course. It was closed from the first day of try-outs for the swim team in mid-November to the weekend after the last swim meet—usually the first weekend in February.  
  
After the first rush of people that first weekend after the pool's reopened—you know, mostly parents and their little kids and all the senior citizens who liked to do their water aerobics—the pool sort of emptied out so that by the end of February, the only people at the pool were the high schoolers who really didn't have much else to do on Saturday afternoon.  
  
Hence why I was there. And unfortunately, I had company, too, in the form of Eric, my brother.  
  
"What is the point," he wanted to know after he'd come up to me on the pool deck—we'd come separately—"of coming to the pool—and _indoor_ pool, too—if you're just going to sit in one of the deck chairs and read a book? You can do that at home. Hell, you can even wear a bathing suit if you want. Knock yourself out."  
  
I rolled my eyes, sitting back on the deck chair. "Eric, is there a reason why you wanted to talk to me?"  
  
"What, can't I talk to my sister?" When I shot him a dubious look, he sighed. "Right. I have two things to tell you. Number one, I talked to Caitlin"—that was his girlfriend—"and she told me that Steve said that he had a wonderful time last night. I can't see how anyone could have a wonderful time with you, but..."  
  
I smacked him with my book. "What was the other thing?"  
  
"Yeah, there's a guy over there," he pointed to other side of the pool where a guy I sort of recognized from school was sitting, "has been staring at you for the past five minutes." Then he just wandered off around the pool deck.  
  
I turned kind of red and looked over at the guy Eric had pointed at. He was staring. I turned back to my book, trying to pretend I hadn't noticed.  
  
Well, after awhile, I got a little tired of hiding behind my book, so I got up from the chair, set my book down and went down to wear the diving boards were. No one was standing by them, so I just climbed right up and went to the edge.  
  
Now I'm not much of a swimmer. I can swim around the deep end a little, but mostly I'd rather just jump in and jump out. As much as I hate to admit it, it freaks me out a little to be in the middle of the pool where I can't touch the bottom if I get worn out while swimming or something.  
  
So, as one might expect from someone who isn't too good at swimming, I can't dive, either, so when I got up there on the diving board, I just plugged my nose, fought down my usual instinct to panic and get down, and jumped right it.  
  
I sunk down a couple feet, then started kicking back toward the surface.  
  
See, the part I always liked about swimming in a pool was that, usually, there's nothing for you to get caught in. Like, when you go to the ocean, you get caught in seaweed or something, but in a pool, the most you have to worry about is smacking into someone else who's swimming around near you.  
  
So, I'm sure you can imagine my shock when I felt something—or rather someone—grab a hold of my foot just as I was getting close to the surface.  
  
And then they yanked me back downwards.  
  
You know what the first thing I instinctively do when that happens? Yeah, I gasp, letting out all the air I was holding, and all the water around me in.  
  
And as I was starting to panic—seeing as how I was technically drowning—whoever had a hold of my foot was pulling me farther and farther down.  
  
I tried yanking my foot away from them, but they just held on tighter. I tried kicking them with my other foot, but that just made them grab both feet and pulled me down harder. At this point I was starting to feel kind of claustrophobic from all the water pushing in around me, and I gave up on trying not to panic and just started trying to swim upward. Not an easy thing to do when you can't kick your legs, trust me. And plus my vision was starting to turn black around the edges, and my throat was burning from all the chlorine.  
  
So there I was, unable to breathe or move really, being pulled toward the bottom of the pool, with my panic-stricken brain starting to fade out on me.  
  
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, two very strong hands grabbed me under my arms and yanked me out of the grip of whoever was trying to drown me.  
  
And that was all I remembered, because right after that I lost consciousness.  
  
!!!  
  
Later, Kevin would wish that he could claim that his first kiss with Anna Foster was romantic and sweet—and would preferably come right after he confessed his undying love for her.  
  
In reality, the first kiss wasn't really a kiss. That's because she was unconscious at the time, and he was trying to give her mouth-to-mouth.  
  
He'd been watching her since he spotted her across the pool. He'd seen her a hundred times before at school and he'd heard about her more times than he could count.  
  
He was the only one who noticed when she went off the diving board. He was the only one who noticed when she didn't resurface. Chad, the lifeguard who had about half a brain in his head, was too busy talking to his equally stupid girlfriend, and wasn't really paying attention to the pool.  
  
Kevin had dove in, frantically tried to find Anna—frantically because the minutes were ticking by, and he didn't know how much time he had to find her—and then he'd finally caught a blurry glimpse of her hair, floating all around. She was even deeper than he expected, and she was going farther down with each second that passed.  
  
He'd grabbed for her, missed the first time, then had to kick harder to follow her into deeper water before he finally grabbed her under the arms and yanked hard. Whatever was pulling her down let go, and Kevin could have sworn he heard a curse, but he didn't pay any attention, he just held onto Anna—who had gonna totally limp—and swam for the surface.  
  
And the only thing he could think the entire time it was happening was, "Oh, God, if she dies, Alex is going to kill me."  
  
!!!  
  
A/N: :-) Hehe... Yeah. Go review, please. 


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: All right, all right, I'm making an effort to write Chapter 3! Yeeey! Pretend to be super happy about this, okay?

Oh, the first part of the chapter kind of sucks, lol. Because mostly when I came up with this chapter, I focused on the second half of it. Though the first half of it features a character from my old series (Think "Secrets Revealed" and "Revelations" lol). I don't actually tell you his name in Part 1, or at all till Part 3, but if you've read my old series, and you happen to remember which character had dimples...

Chapter 3

I was in a daze for pretty much the rest of the day.

Honestly. You'd think that after nearly drowning to death in my school's pool that I'd do something like burst into tears. Well, okay, I don't generally do that. Cry, I mean. But you'd think that I'd at least do something. But I guess I was in shock. Or something.

Anyway, I let the guy—Kevin, I guess his name was. You'd think I'd know the name of the guy who'd just saved my life—take me home because Eric had apparently left at some point.

He didn't say anything as we walked out to his car. Which was fine with me. He kept asking me, while we were at the pool, if I was okay, if I needed anything. It was kind of sweet, you know, for a guy who didn't actually know me.

Yeah, I know, I shouldn't have been getting into a car with someone I'd just met, but I figured that he couldn't be that bad—I mean, he'd pulled me from certain death. So it wasn't like he was a complete stranger.

Sort of.

But when he pulled up in front of my house, I just thanked him—again—you know, for the ride, and saving my life. I didn't really give him a chance to answer. He opened his mouth to say something, but I just sort of slammed the door and ran into my house.

Yeah, I know, I'm the most gracious person on earth. Sue me.

But by the time I got up to my bedroom I saw that there was already someone up there. I didn't have to wonder too long how he'd gotten there, because it became pretty obvious that he was no longer among the living.

Might have something to do with the fact that he was sitting on my bed, and was amusing himself by sticking his hand through the mattress.

"What the hell are you doing?"

He looked up, and grinned at me, causing a little dimple to appear on his cheek. "Anna Foster, I presume."

I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling a little uncomfortable. You would too if you'd just been attacked by a ghost—probably a ghost, anyway—and had nearly died. So some guy showing up in my room, announcing, basically, that he knew exactly who I was, not just what I was, made me feel a bit uneasy. "What do you want?"

"Came to warn you," he said, his smile fading a little.

A little late for that, buster. "About what?"

"You're about to get in the middle of something very dangerous," the nameless ghost informed me. "You have to be careful who you trust. There are a lot of old bonds that could get in your way."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" I demanded.

Unfortunately, before I could even finish my sentence, he was gone.

A/N: Don't you hate it when they do that? Anyway, for future reference: Alex and Kevin, although they don't tend to take their anger out by hitting people (except on the occasions that the person has done bodily harm/threatened to do bodily harm to someone they care about) they tend to take their anger out on inanimate objects. Like doors. And shoes.

You'll see what I mean.

The entire way home after dropping off Anna, Kevin was kicking himself for being such an idiot. He'd finally had his chance to talk to her, and he'd blown it. Yes, she'd just gone through one hell of an ordeal, but still. He could have said something.

But of course, he couldn't say everything he wanted to, because certain people were too intent on keeping their secrets.

At the thought of Alex, Kevin felt the anger well up inside him. This was all his fault, Kevin was almost sure of it. If he'd be perfectly honest with Anna for a minute, this wouldn't be happening.

Or maybe it had all been inevitable. Kevin didn't care. He was still furious.

That was why when he got into the house, he slammed open the door (A/N: See? What'd I tell you?) and yelled, "ALEX!"

Thank God no one was home, otherwise they might start to wonder why he was standing in the front hall yelling the name of a dead man at the top of his lungs.

Alex materialized in front of him, looking a little annoyed. "What—"

But Kevin didn't let him finish his sentence. He just barreled right along, demanding, "What the hell have you been doing?"

Alex stopped looking annoyed and started looking confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Nevermind." That wasn't a question Kevin generally asked. He didn't really care for what Alex tended to do in his spare time. "You know what happened today?" When Alex shook his head, Kevin went on, "Anna almost died."

That got Alex's attention all right. "_What_?"

"Somebody tried to drown her in the pool. And I think it's fairly safe to say whoever did it was a ghost. No one can hold their breath that long."

Alex had stopped listening about halfway through what Kevin had said. "Is she okay? Where is she?" He was starting to get that panicked look on his face. Kevin probably shouldn't have been happy about that, but a part of him was anyway. The other part, though, had just gotten started.

"She's at home, she's fine. But I want to know where the hell you were." Alex just stared at him for a long time. "You were with her, weren't you?" It wasn't really a question. Kevin knew the answer already.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Alex demanded, getting defensive now.

Kevin leaned against the wall, looking far calmer than he felt. "I just think that it's a little too convenient that she just happened to need you right when all of this was happening."

Alex advanced on him, looking more than a little angry now. Kevin didn't budge. He wasn't too afraid of Alex's reaction. They both knew he wasn't going to try and hurt him. "She has nothing to do with this."

"I can't live in your dream world, Alex. You have to face up to the fact she's dangerous, and one of these days she's going to go off and you're not going to be able to save her from all the consequences."

Kevin almost expected Alex to argue with him. For a minute he just stood there, looking like he very much wanted to rip Kevin's head off for the things he'd said, but suddenly it was like all the energy just drained out of him. Finally, Alex sighed. "I know," he said, a little hoarsely. "But she didn't have anything to do with this."

When Kevin opened his mouth to say something, Alex broke in, "She didn't." Then he dematerialized, presumably to go check on Anna.

Kevin just slumped against the wall, closing his eyes. Anna didn't deserve to be dragged into this, he knew that from the short time he was with her, and everything Alex had ever said about her. She didn't deserve to dragged into a family feud.

Especially not considering the kind of family he had, anyway.

A/N: Eh. It didn't turn out quite as well as I wanted it to, but I like it. My brain's too focused currently on other things. Lol. I need to get back into fanfic writing mode. Or at least "finish the current story so you can move onto the other ones you want to write" mode. Hehe. You know the drill; read and review.


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